Super Mario Party Jamboree finally gives Daisy the respect she deserves

As a little girl who fell in love with gaming in the late 90s, I was excited to see the inclusion of princesses in the lists of Nintendo 64 Mario side titles. I've been playing as Peach ever since and girl character until Daisy came along with Mario Tennis in 2000. Suddenly there was a brunette that I, also a brunette, could easily see myself in and I left Peachy behind without looking back.

But who is Daisy? When I googled “Princess Daisy” to double-check that I was correct with some of my Mario lore, one of the first page results was a Reddit thread asking “Where did Princess Daisy even come from? Added to Mario Tennis as another humanoid character to balance out the non-human characters, to the Smash series as an alternate color for Peach until she became her Shadow Fighter in 2018's Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and into Super Mario Bros. Wonder in 2023 just because Daisy was always just an afterthought to keep the producer's daughters from fighting over who should play the princess.

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Princess Daisy's playable debut in Super Mario Bros. Wonder is here for a long time

When Super Mario Bros. Wonder arrives on October 10th, it will be the long-awaited playable debut of Princess Daisy in the main series.

“Good!” I'll admit it: Daisy screams too much sometimes

Introduced in 1989's Super Mario Land and mostly unused outside of side games, Daisy is easily the least developed of the Mario princesses. We've seen Peach as Mario's damsel in distress for decades, and she recently became the heroine of her own story in Princess Peach: Showtime! Rosalina is the latest in the canon, making her stellar entry in 2007's Super Mario Galaxy. Pauline was the original queen from the 1981 arcade cabinet game Donkey Kong, who returned to the stage and spotlight in 2017's Super Mario Odyssey.

However, Nintendo doesn't always seem to know exactly what to do with Daisy, as a character whose most recent lore is now 35 years old. Because of this, if you don't know her for anything else in 2024, you know Daisy for her signature loudness. My partner and I have been playing Mario Party Superstars almost every week since we started dating two and a half years ago, and even though we often split up our characters and CPUs randomly, he almost never fails to groan audibly when it enters our mix confused Daisy. Chances are, we'll both be totally spamming Daisy's boisterous stickers during the game, as well as making fun of her constant, “Wow! Good! Let's go!” by voicing it ourselves in real life.

I think he was hoping when Super Mario Party Jamboree came out that I would jump ship to Toadette. I played as her when we played Super Mario Bros. I was surprised at how much I hated Elephant Daisy on the inside, and I always squealed with joy when I visited her selling stars in Mario Party Superstars, but as much as I longed to be my little pink friend every now and then, I hopped into Daisy's orange high heels before we loaded Roll 'Em Raceway and the game started – much quieter than we expected.

Sure, there are still ways to get her to drink, especially with all the Reactions (I personally love her dramatic “u-What!?'), but Daisy seems to have eased up a bit this time. It still gets some flair though – each character gets their own musical stinger when it's their turn, and hers is a cheerful accordion tune.

Daisy's personality shines through in her Showdown minigame

Daisy may not have a game plan of her own (still)but of the 22 characters on the Super Mario Party Jamboree roster, he is one of ten that could drop into your game as Jamboree Buddy. This is the latest iteration of allies, buddies who follow you for three turns and offer a unique advantage when they're your plus one. Daisy's perk, which halves the cost of any item on the board, is easily one of the most useful.

Not only does her Jamboree Buddy ability rule the roost, but since each Buddy is earned by winning a unique minigame tailored to their character, we can indulge in the ultimate tomboy flavor with Daisy's Field Day. Giving her characters a series of physical challenges, Daisy gives you four chances to collect cute medallions with her signature flower as she throws them across the board. Defeat your opponents in a series of athletic stunts, such as jumping between poles emerging from the water, jumping across moving platforms, jumping over fence-like obstacles on a treadmill, and balancing on a rotating cylindrical platform that can launch you into the water below.

Between toning down the screams and racing around in some typical sports style, Daisy feels more like a real character in the Jamboree than just a roster filler like in the past. She's still one of the better characters, but at least her appetite is only at seven or eight this time instead of going all the way up to 11 like normal. With Super Mario Party Jamboree making Daisy more than just a vocal player this time around – two characters, I hope this subtle upgrade lays the groundwork for my girl to get her own title on the next Switch.

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Any Mario game where you can play as Princess Daisy

These games allow you to put yourself in the shoes of Princess Daisy.